whelve
by Nnatsukashii
Summary: "…Bath. She's offering you a bath. I bet she can smell you even in her dulled, old age, Walker." The boy ignores the jibe and stares with sure, blushing surprise at the small figure of the woman in the doorway, and begins to nod and smile in his bashful way when good things are offered to a scared, dirty boy. Heavy Yullen, complete oneshot.


Tea is served in small, delicate clinks and humble greetings are soon rushed at the door once Allen's curl around Link's back and hands beneath his creaky knees are assessed, the three are urged into the house in a concerned rasp of small foreign words and arthritic fingers. Muddy boots are discarded at the door, the boy's feet hardly touching the ground as his blond companion holds him steady and the old woman sacrifices her back to bending down and tugging them away from his small, sore feet.

The trio is settled around the table in more hushed, polite strings of concern and modest homeliness. Kanda tucks himself to the small table and listens to the woman's idle chatter from the kitchen, soft, familiar Japanese words coming to him among the Korean that falls flat and foreign against his ears.

To his right Allen smothers a moan and wipes from his eyes what sleep he's managed to gather on their short journey back from the field of akuma. He sips from his tea and looks away as Link riffles through a bag for bandages and turns to the boy with a ready bottle of codeine that makes Kanda nervous, though Allen still takes a tablet or two and painfully swallows them dry to will away his pain.

The only warning Kanda receives before he's surprised with a firm hand on his shoulder are a pair of footsteps coming from the hall behind him, one steady and cushioned with socks against worn wood floors, and another a teetering tumble that right away calls Allen's attention and draws to his face a smile. The Japanese boy jumps slightly as he's startled with the new, wholly unexpected weight and looks with alarmed cobalt eyes into the smiling face of an aging Korean man.

"Another run through the fields? How are your wounds, boy, your sword?" he chatters in easy Japanese as he sits down and food is served around the table.

In his startled fumble for words, his eyes draw away and idly catch mirthful silver and below it both a small, twitching nose and suppressed smile, though Allen attempts to busy himself with the blithely smiling child that tumbles to his side to save himself a later scolding.

Kanda clears his throat and looks down at his soup as his companion pulls into his lap the gurgling toddler, "My colleagues and I have finally been able to clear out the fields tonight with only minor injuries," he murmurs in Japanese, his eyes again sweeping past Allen's as the boy looks up at him delightfully from smiling into the baby's face. "Mugen is fine," he says finally over his chopsticks.

With that the man expresses his gratitude cheerfully across the table and says to both Allen and Link in his own pieced together English how glad he is for the trio performing their duties that afternoon. The boy bows as well as he can at the table given his injuries and the child in his lap, though to the old couple his charming smiles seem to be enough, and after a few more words, they dig into eat, quiet chatter among them despite their language barriers.

Allen and his fancied Japanese boy share no more looks across the table, no more teasing smiles or cruel chortles at each other's dismay. They enjoy their warm meal slowly, Allen asking for seconds, thirds, perhaps a fourth, before they stretch from their small seats and make for their upstairs room. Kanda pads past Allen as he kneels down and slides open a door in the hall, the baby on his feet beside him with the guide of a gentle hand at his back.

He pushes the child forward as his mother, sickly and already laid in bed, turns to thank Allen and sits up to embrace her son as he toddles toward her. Allen is all bashful smiles and gracefully clipped bows, bidding them good night as at last Link finishes formalities with the old couple and comes to sweep him away. Kanda watches the boy from his perch on the staircase but moves along before his companions catch up to meet him.

In their softly lit room, Link and Allen find Kanda already laying in his futon with his tired eyes tucked into the crook of his elbow, and as the boy's silver eyes sweep by he wishes for the freedom that would allow him at least a touch to his hair or a press of hands into his companion's back, though with his guardian watching even a casual touch between comrades my seem suspicious, more so when concerning his Japanese boy. Instead he strips down to his underwear as Link sets up his ink, book, and pen on his low oriental table by the window, and keeps his thoughts of having his bedfellow with him once more to himself.

The door to their room slides open very suddenly just as Allen is pulling on his nightshirt, the small, old woman appearing on her knees as it rolls open. The Exorcist stares with some hesitation as she smiles directly at him and she begins to speak, her small, crippled hands beckoning him to come with her. Kanda shifts from his dormant spot and attempts to listen to her soft words, though only few he comes to recognize.

"Just go with her, kid."

"But I have no idea what it is she wants," Allen turns from his hesitant smiles to growl at Kanda. "A little help?"

"…Bath. She's offering you a bath. I bet she can smell you even in her dulled, old age, Walker."

The boy ignores the jibe and stares with sure, blushing surprise at the small figure of the woman in the doorway, and begins to nod and smile in his bashful way when good things are offered to a scared, dirty boy. He looks at his keeper with shy question and he's answered with work-dulled eyes, but a nod nonetheless, informing him of his watch through the window he sits beneath.

He gathers what he needs and suddenly he finds Kanda is beckoned as well, though he's hesitant and clearly uncomfortable about his company, but pulls himself out of bed nonetheless, sending Allen a dirty look as he stares, as though it's his fault for being caked with dirt and previously slicked with sweat. The boys follow her down the short, narrow steps and through the kitchen into the yard where Link's window faces.

Waiting on the cool wood deck is a Western-styled tub, though Allen realizes it's empty just as Kanda is stopped short from following him and is diverted into the kitchen. He reappears with a cauldron heavy in his strong hands, and tips it into the tub, steam rising form its stream of water. The sight delights Allen just as a refreshingly cool breeze relieves them of a coming summer's warmth, and as Kanda steps away to return to the kitchen with the woman he cannot wait to submerge himself into the bath.

The two disappear and he's stripping once more and lowers himself into the water just as Kanda is by his side again, hand out and offering him a pink bar of soap Allen takes with a cocky smile up at his handsome face. He presses the sweet-smelling soap to his skin and his Japanese boy does not move but to stuff his hands into his pockets and watch.

"Oh, if only you could fit in here, too," he teases. "It would definitely loosen you up from today's hard work."

"I'm fine," comes Kanda's distracted reply.

"So I can see."

The boy continues his only half-hearted tease and leans back to stretch his dirty, bruised legs and scrub them, and feels those cobalt-blue eyes very carefully on him. He pays very special care to his abused thighs knowing how much Kanda would only like to take a hold of them as he has so many times before, until a breath is at his ear and he smiles his knowing, broad smile, thrilled that he's won Kanda's choice of action past his craving stare.

Their lips are pressed together at once in small, flighty kisses Allen starves his pretty Japanese boy of and smiles so slyly between them until there's a hand at his collarbone and then cupping his chest beneath his arm as if to steady his lips. He feigns vexation when in his hazy head he remembers Link's supposed watch out of the window and mischievously mumbles his, "I'm supposed to be taking a bath."

Regrettably, Kanda retracts from his lips and takes the fragrant bar of soap from its float in the water and takes to scrubbing Allen's back as an excuse to keep his touch on the boy's skin. He lingers on the broad, muscle bound shoulders and beneath a peachy, scared expanse of skin ripples strength the warm pads of Kanda's fingers relish in. He moans and sighs delightfully and leans into his knees as his companion kneads into his back the way he had wished to do so to him only a few moments before, and lips join his fingers in a few sweet spots.

Kanda takes from the foot of the tub an oriental bucket left for Allen to use and douses the boy's head in the lukewarm water, leaving him to wash his own hair as he dips his fingers into the bathwater. They chat and tease as only they can do together, occasionally one or the other prickling and sending water their way in a childish splash of their hands.

"You were much more tolerable when you had that kid in your lap, bean," Kanda says nearly into Allen's mouth as he smiles only a hairsbreadth away. "Where did your manners go?"

The boy tips his head back and laughs heartily into the warming spring air, "And now since when do I have any manners when it comes to you, huh? There's no other way to deal with you comfortably if they aren't just thrown out the window."

A few more closely held grumbles and impulsive kisses later, Allen stands in his now hazy bathwater and wraps himself in a towel, and despite his complaints and implied requests Kanda does not shield him from the breeze. Instead he helps him out of the tub with a hand on the small of his back, both foolishly distracted now by each other and Allen's chest falling to rest against Kanda's, towel held between them as he leans in with his arms around his Japanese boy's neck to press their lips together one last time.

Kanda so slyly lifts the boy's cover and, taking advantage of their last moments, cups his ass in a way that makes Allen voice feigned protest so delightfully into his mouth, and resist him with a hardly serious hold against his wrist. He laughs into his companion's mouth and delivers one last peck to his check before they separate, and Allen makes to slip back into his nightshirt and clean underwear as Kanda waits by the door. They quietly return to their room with their childish teasing and steadfastly held crave for each other's company in bed hidden once more.

Allen finds Link asleep at his desk and pats him awake so amiably with soft words and giggles while Kanda undresses himself and slides into bed, and as the boy turns to him to bid him a silent goodnight he gifts him a taut, toothless smile that quells his fancied Japanese boy into sleep.

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thank you for reading my work (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

you can find on my profile page a link to this same oneshot posted on my tumblr


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